India has a long history of non-violent, passive resistance in social movements rooted in its Hindu concept of ahimsa, or "no harm." During the British occupation of India in the early twentieth century, Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi began to employ a method of resistance against the British that he called satyagraha (meaning "force of truth"). Synthesized from his knowledge of Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Christianity and Hinduism, Gandhi's concept of satyagraha involves the absolute refusal to cooperate with a perceived wrong and the use of nonviolent tactics in combination with complete honesty to confront, and ultimately convert, evil.

During the occupation, the rights of peasants to gather products, including forest materials, was severely curtailed. New land ownership systems imposed by the British transformed what had been communal village resources into the private property of newly created landlords. Furthermore, policies that encouraged commercial...